Derivatives And Hedging Activities

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2014

Derivatives And Hedging Activities

NOTE 9: DERIVATIVES

Use of Derivative Instruments

The Utility is exposed to commodity price risk as a result of its electricity and natural gas procurement activities.  Procurement costs are recovered through customer rates.  The Utility uses both derivative and non-derivative contracts to manage volatility in customer rates due to fluctuating commodity prices.  Derivatives include forward contracts, swaps, futures, options, and CRRs.

These instruments are not held for speculative purposes and are subject to certain regulatory requirements.  Customer rates are designed to recover the Utility's reasonable costs of providing services, including the costs related to price risk management activities.

Price risk management activities that meet the definition of derivatives are recorded at fair value on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.  As long as the current ratemaking mechanism discussed in Note 2, above, remains in place and the Utility's price risk management activities are carried out in accordance with CPUC directives, the Utility expects to recover fully, in rates, all costs related to derivatives.  Therefore, all unrealized gains and losses associated with the change in fair value of these derivatives are deferred and recorded within the Utility's regulatory assets and liabilities on the Consolidated Balance Sheets.  Net realized gains or losses on commodity derivatives are recorded in the cost of electricity or the cost of natural gas with corresponding increases or decreases to regulatory balancing accounts for recovery from or refund to customers.

Cash collateral paid or received is offset against the fair value of derivative instruments executed with the same counterparty under a master netting arrangement, where the right of offset and the intention to offset exist.  Derivatives are presented in the Utility's Consolidated Balance Sheets on a net basis; see below.

The Utility elects the normal purchase and sale exception for eligible derivatives.  Eligible derivatives are those that require physical delivery in quantities that are expected to be used by the Utility over a reasonable period in the normal course of business, and do not contain pricing provisions unrelated to the commodity delivered.  The fair value of these items is not reflected in the Consolidated Balance Sheets at fair value, eligible derivatives are accounted for under the accrual method of accounting.

Volume of Derivative Activity

At December 31, 2014 and 2013, respectively, the volumes of the Utility's outstanding derivatives were as follows:

		Contract Volume
Underlying Product	Instruments	2014	2013
Natural Gas (1) (MMBtus (2))	Forwards and Swaps	308,130,101	331,840,788
	Options	164,418,002	260,262,916
Electricity (Megawatt-hours)	Forwards and Swaps	5,346,787	8,089,269
	Congestion Revenue Rights (3)	224,124,341	250,922,591

 ⁽¹⁾ Amounts shown are for the combined positions of the electric fuels and core gas supply portfolios.

⁽²⁾ Million British Thermal Units.

⁽³⁾ CRRs are financial instruments that enable the holders to manage variability in congestion costs based on demand when there is insufficient transmission capacity.

Presentation of Derivative Instruments in the Financial Statements

At December 31, 2014, the Utility's outstanding derivative balances were as follows:

	Commodity Risk
	Gross Derivative								Total Derivative
(in millions)	Balance			Netting			Cash Collateral		Balance
Current assets - other	$	73		$	(4	)	$	19	$	88
Other noncurrent assets - other		178			(13	)		-		165
Current liabilities - other		(78	)		4			26		(48	)
Noncurrent liabilities - other		(140	)		13			9		(118	)
Total commodity risk	$	33		$	-		$	54	$	87

At December 31, 2013, the Utility's outstanding derivative balances were as follows:

	Commodity Risk
	Gross Derivative								Total Derivative
(in millions)	Balance			Netting			Cash Collateral		Balance
Current assets - other	$	42		$	(10	)	$	16	$	48
Other noncurrent assets - other		99			(4	)		-		95
Current liabilities - other		(122	)		10			69		(43	)
Noncurrent liabilities - other		(110	)		4			2		(104	)
Total commodity risk	$	(91)		$	-		$	87	$	(4)

Gains and losses recorded on the Utility's derivatives were as follows:

	Commodity Risk
	For the year ended December 31,
(in millions)	2014			2013			2012
Unrealized gain/(loss) - regulatory assets and liabilities (1)	$	124		$	238		$	391
Realized loss - cost of electricity (2)		(83	)		(178	)		(486	)
Realized loss - cost of natural gas (2)		(8	)		(22	)		(38	)
Total commodity risk	$	33		$	38		$	(133)

 ⁽¹⁾ Unrealized gains and losses on commodity risk-related derivative instruments are recorded to regulatory assets or liabilities, rather than being recorded to the  Consolidated Statements of Income.  These amounts exclude the impact of cash collateral postings.

⁽²⁾ These amounts are fully passed through to customers in rates.  Accordingly, net income was not impacted by realized amounts on these instruments.

Cash inflows and outflows associated with derivatives are included in operating cash flows on the Utility's Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows.

The majority of the Utility's derivatives contain collateral posting provisions tied to the Utility's credit rating from each of the major credit rating agencies.  At December 31, 2014, the Utility's credit rating was investment grade.  If the Utility's credit rating were to fall below investment grade, the Utility would be required to post additional cash immediately to fully collateralize some of its net liability derivative positions.

The additional cash collateral that the Utility would be required to post if the credit risk-related contingency features were triggered was as follows:

	Balance at December 31,
(in millions)	2014			2013
Derivatives in a liability position with credit risk-related
contingencies that are not fully collateralized	$	(47	)	$	(79	)
Related derivatives in an asset position		-			4
Collateral posting in the normal course of business related to
these derivatives		44			65
Net position of derivative contracts/additional collateral
posting requirements (1)	$	(3)		$	(10)

 ⁽¹⁾ This calculation excludes the impact of closed but unpaid positions, as their settlement is not impacted by any of the Utility's credit risk-related contingencies.